


Fading Beauty

by Magicjinnie (Emc_10602)



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Accidental Troublemaker Kim Seungmin, Alternate Universe - High School, Bad Boy Hwang Hyunjin, Detention, Explicit Language, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Hwang Hyunjin & Kim Seungmin are Best Friends, Jealousy, Kim Seungmin is Whipped, Light Angst, Love at first sight?, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Scheming, Slice of Life, confused seungmin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22611502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emc_10602/pseuds/Magicjinnie
Summary: Seungmin has a hugeeeee crush on Minho, one tiny problem though, Minho is dating Jisung. Seungmin thinks he can change this. With the help of his friends Jeongin and Hyunjin, he plans ways to disturb Minsung’s relationship to get Minho himself. Seungmin makes friends (and maybe even a few enemies) all along the way. By the end of the school year will he have everything figured out? Or will he be like most high school students and remain as confused as ever?
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Lee Felix, Hwang Hyunjin/Seo Changbin, Kim Seungmin/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	1. Detention

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic!! I have so many ideas for this story, and maybe even more down the line. Let me know what you think! Thank you and enjoy reading :-)

Seungmin walked into school really not knowing what was going to happen in this new place. 

What he didn't expect was to end up in detention for the first week. Sure, he had been completely zoned out for half of his classes and ended up accidentally tripping a girl, but that's just what it was: an accident. Unfortunately, his teacher really didn't believe him and he ended up with a detention slip in his hand, marked for the rest of the week. Why the whole week? Who knows, maybe the teacher had seen him doodling in his notebook the entire class. He just couldn't catch a break, and now how was he going to explain ending up in detention to his parents? It was bad enough he had to start going to a school all the way across the city, he shouldn't be causing trouble already. It isn’t like he meant to, but he always got caught up in the wrong things. It's not his fault he's super nice and can't say no to anything. That's how he ended up dating a drug dealer at his last school. As soon as his parents found out, they decided to send Seungmin to a new school to ensure that he was working hard with limited distractions. Obviously, that plan was going swimmingly. 

As Seungmin sat down in the detention hall he thought about how his day had been. The only fortunate thing was he was now attending the same school as his preschool best friend Hwang Hyunjin. Sadly, he hadn't been able to see him today since Hyunjin was always getting into some sort of trouble around town. There hadn't been much to note: classes were boring, the teachers were kind of mean, and the boys he had seen so far were just subpar. That last observation began to change real quick as 5 new boys walked into the detention room. All poor Seungmin could do was stare at them slyly and attempt not to drool too much. All of them were way better looking than him or any other guy he had ever dated; yet of course, he had to meet them in detention. His parents probably wouldn't be the happiest, but what's more fun than living on the edge a little.

“KIM SEUNGMIN!” a voice jolted Seungmin out of his admiration for these boys. He looked around and realized the instructor in charge of detention had finally appeared. "Time to work my magic," he thought as he strided confidently towards the desk at the front of the room. “Sit down,” the instructor said cooly without lifting his head from the book he was currently reading.

“I wanted to let you know there’s been some sort of misunder--,” the man sighed and muttered under his breath, “How much longer do I have to do this for?” A couple seconds later, “Kim Seungmin, correct?” Seungmin nodded, he could feel the eyes of the others in the room at this point, “There is no mistake. This is, in fact, the detention hall, so either go back to your seat or I will have no choice but to add another day or two to your--” the man quickly glanced at the detention slips and squinted-- “to your week of detentions already.” Seungmin’s head drooped as he began his walk of shame back to his stuff. He could hear snickering as he walked past, but hey, at least he tried. However, as he reached his desk, he noticed a little slip of paper lying on top of his books. Scrawled on it was written: Nice try. Watch and learn.

Nothing happened for what felt like eons, but in reality after 3 minutes, a dark-haired boy with sharp features glided towards the front desk. And wow was Seungmin floored. He had never seen someone with such sculpture-like visuals before this moment. How had he missed him when he walked into the room? He must have slipped in when he was talking to the teacher, but holy smokes. Seungmin watched and waited to see what would happen to this beautiful boy. After a couple seconds of talking to the instructor, the boy walked over to a desk and picked up-- what Seungmin could only assume-- his things. Seungmin sighed. The beautiful boy was just leaving! As soon as he caught a glimpse, the beauty was already fading. How sad...until suddenly the boy appeared in front of him, nodded his head towards the door, and wildly gestured to Seungmin to hurry up and follow him … WHAT?!


	2. Introductions

Seungmin gathered up his stuff and quickly followed the boy out of the room without a single glance back. Had to take your chances when you could and this was it. The boy made a right as soon as he exited the room. This was absolutely insane. First day of school and Seungmin was following this random dude who just got him out of detention. His thoughts were racing while he kept following. Mystery guy was moving a little too fast for Seungmin’s liking, but he had to keep up if he wanted to thank the boy for getting him out of there. 

The boy paused before entering a new classroom. “Why are you still following me?” Mystery boy huffed out. “O-oh, I thought you were leading me somewhere, but I guess I also wanted to say thank you for getting me out of that hell hole,” Seungmin replied a little nervously, “so thank you, and I guess I’ll be getting out of your hair now.”

“Seungmin, right? You don’t have to go I guess, just mentally prepare to meet my crackhead friends, alright?” The boy moved to open the classroom door, “My name’s Minho by the way.” Minho. Minho? Why did that name sound so familiar to Seungmin all of a sudden? He surely couldn’t be the Lee Minho he had heard so much about from Hyunjin...unless he could be? A lot of the things Hyunjin told him did match up with the boy standing in front of him, but that would have to be the weirdest twist of fate ever.

Seungmin walked through the door and was met by 4 other boys. One he recognized from detention, another was— “Hyunjin?!” Seungmin exclaimed as he moved towards the other boy. “Jesus, it took you two long enough. I thought I was gonna have to pull a fire alarm or something to get you out of there” Hyunjin pulled him into a hug as he rolled his eyes. Apparently they, whomever “they” really were, had been expecting him, and holy shit, the Minho he just met was Hyunjin’s Lee Minho. 

“In my defense, I had to make sure the teacher had calmed enough after this kid’s little stunt before I could get to convincing him to let us out,” Minho explained from behind Seungmin somewhere. “You tried to get out yourself? I didn’t know you had the balls to try something like that,” laughed Hyunjin. 

“First of all, I’m not a ‘kid’. Second, I would’ve been dead if my parents found out I got detention the first day, you know that. I had to get out of there somehow, and I guess it was lucky that Minho took pity on me and was able to convince the instructor to let me go, which, by the way, how did you do that?” Seungmin rambled. 

“That?” chuckled Minho, “a name goes a long way in some places, and that teacher has been wanting to get out of here a long time. Getting a recommendation from someone of higher power could really help him out. Not that it’s ever actually going to happen, but you know.” Minho shrugged and turned his attention to the boy next to him. Almost immediately he greeted the boy with a peck on the lips and started speaking to him in a hushed tone. “Now, we should let everyone introduce themselves!” Hyunjin said. “You want to start Lix?”

He was referring to the boy next to him whom Seungmin just realized had been holding Hyunjin’s hand this entire time and looked at him like he held the entire universe. Which was odd, since Seungmin had never seen this boy before and he could’ve sworn Hyunjin was dating this guy named Changbin. 

“Sure! The name’s Felix!” Seungmin had not been expecting that. Why was the baby-faced boy with baby hands’ voice so fucking deep? That couldn’t be normal. Seungmin also picked up a slight accent, which was pretty unusual. “Felix here is a foreign exchange student from Australia. He’s also my boyfriend” Hyunjin explained in a sweet voice as he booped Felix’s nose and squeezed his hand reassuringly. Odd: that was the only word Seungmin could think of to describe this situation. He could’ve sworn Hyunjin was with someone else the other day, but also since when was Hyunjin so lovey-dovey? This was definitely a side of him Seungmin hadn’t seen before, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it, except that he knew he would definitely be teasing Hyunjin about it later when they walked home. 

“I’m Jisung,” rang a new voice from across the room. Seungmin turned. Ah, Minho’s boyfriend. Jisung looked familiar, but Seungmin was sure if he really knew him he would remember. With his distinct, squirrel-like features, a look like that would be hard to forget. “We’re in a lot of the same classes, and we could probably be pretty chill friends if you don’t end up being too lame.” “Thanks for that vote of confidence,” replied Seungmin. Jisung just shrugged. 

“Oh, you’ve already met me, but try to stay out of detention from now on, I hate having to go in there,” said Minho with a roll of his eyes. “Sorry to break it to you, but I have detention for the next week,” just met the guy and Seungmin was already a bearer of bad news. “Actually, you don’t. Already took care of it for you, don’t forget to thank me later...or now, I’m not too particular,” responded Minho with a smug look on his face. How in the world? Who exactly was this guy?

“And finally, our youngest and brightest! Innie?” Hyunjin looked towards the smaller boy in the seat next to Felix. The boy looked up and smiled shyly. His smile really did seem to make the room brighter. And were those braces? Cute. 

“Hi, my name is Jeongin. Hyung has told me a lot about you and um, yeah.” The boy looked exactly like a little desert fox, and it sort of melted Seungmin’s heart just a tiny bit. 

“And there you have it, this is the crew. No proper name because that would be disgusting, but we’ll be here to get you through the hell we all know is school. We can get you out of trouble” Hyunjin aimed finger guns at Minho, “and into the fun sort of trouble, if you know what I mean.” Hyunjin winked and started laughing. Everyone joined in and started talking over each other until Felix suddenly asked Seungmin, “Hey, are you okay?” with a sense of urgency. Actually, now that he thought about it, he did not feel okay. He felt like he was going to keel over any minute and he didn’t want to make that kind of impression on all these new people. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Seungmin tried to respond coolly, but his words were a mess and it ended up not sounding like gibberish. 

“Welp, he’s definitely not fine. I guess I’ll be leaving to get his sorry ass home,” Hyunjin stated nonchalantly. Was that a little unicorn Seungmin could see out of the corner of his eye? How cute! Felix kissed Hyunjin and whispered something in his ear. Everyone wished them a safe walk home as the boys made their way out the door. Seungmin felt like he was levitating as the pair began walking down the street, and wow was it trippy. “What the hell is up with you?” questioned Hyunjin. 

And that’s the last thing Seungmin registered before it went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel this chapter is much better than the first, and I do hope to continue and develop this story :-)


	3. Wakey Wakey

Suddenly, Seungmin could see the blurry outline of Hyunjin’s mom, the woman who had practically raised him alongside his own parents for as long as he could remember, come into view. “Hello, Mrs. Hwang” woke Seungmin with a yawn, “Uh, do you know where Hyunjin went?” 

“Oh, he just popped out for a second with one of his boys, he should be back pretty soon. That boy of mine, he’s so kind. He’s always out helping these two boys and it’s just the nicest thing ever, don’t you think? You’ve also become such a kind boy over the years.” Mrs. Hwang leaned over and lightly pinched one of Seungmin’s cheeks. He just nodded his head, which, now that he was awake, he realized kind of throbbed. Also, two boys? 

“Are you okay sweetie? Hyunjin told me it’s been a long day for you and you wanted to take a nap. I just decided to pop in and check on you to make sure you didn’t need anything. You came over quite suddenly, I didn’t even have any snacks prepared,” laughed Hyunjin’s mom as if not having snacks prepared was the most ridiculous occurrence in the world. 

“Yeah, I’m okay.” 

“That’s good—“ 

“Bye Changbinnie~” Seungmin could hear Hyunjin’s voice coming from somewhere else in the house. 

“I’ll go let him know you’re awake,” and with that Mrs.Hwang walked out of Hyunjin’s room. A couple seconds later Hyunjin appeared with a glass of water in his hand. 

As he passed the water to Seungmin, he ranted, “Dude, what the fuck happened to you? You literally just passed out while we were walking home. It’s a good thing my mom’s pretty oblivious. She didn’t even notice when I brought you inside.”

Seungmin sighed. “I honestly have no idea what happened. One second I was freaking out over Minho and meeting your friends, and the next, the world was full of vibrant colors and flying animals...”

“Hmm, did you take anything from anyone today? Before school? During class? In detention?”

“Oh, yeah, this guy offered me some candy as I was walking into the detention room. It had a little smiley face on it. Super cute! It seemed harmless enough, but Now that I think about it, it wasn’t very sweet.”

“You absolute idiot. That was probably acid or some wack shit like that.” Hyunjin buried his face in his hands. How could his friend be so naive? “At least we know you can’t handle drugs or anything now.” 

“Ooo, you seem to know a lot about this sort of thing. I take it you do some uh—fun stuff, from time to time? Does Minho too?”

“Is that your way of asking if we’re actual crackheads or something? Because the answer to that would be no. Maybe some social vaping at parties and I’m near that sort of stuff all the time, but we don’t really get around to anything that crazy on our own.”

“Aww, aren’t you supposed to be this badass or something though?”

“Who the hell told you that?” Hyunjin pouted a little at that one. He really was trying to be on his best behavior lately, except when people were going behind his back talking shit and drugging his friends. “Talk shit get hit” was practically his life motto at this point, and someone was going to have to pay for what happened to Seungmin. That bastard was lucky nothing worse happened or he would’ve had to hide for the safety of his sanity. It was a known fact Hyunjin could make someone’s social life a living hell if you got on his bad side. “I’m pretty well behaved in my opinion.”

“Huh, that’s surprising considering that’s all people had to say about you today,” remarked Seungmin. 

“Why were people talking about me?” Hyunjin really hadn’t done anything lately...at least not anything his classmates would know about. 

“Well, people were trying to get to know me and I would mention you as one of my friends that went there. Then everyone was telling me how you’re such a ‘bad boy’ and to stay away from you because you’re trouble or something.” Seungmin had to laugh. How could Hyunjin do anything remotely on the side of trouble? This was the boy who would practically beg their preschool teacher to end play time and teach them shapes. Then again, he supposed a lot could change in 12 years. “If anything was going on and you needed help you would tell me, right?” Seungmin looked like he was about to cry. 

Hyunjin couldn’t help feeling bad, but until he knew Seungmin was chill for sure, well—“Of course I would tell you. You’re one of my oldest friends and you’ve always told me I could go to you for anything. Now please don’t cry in front of me or else I’m going to text Minho right now about what a cry baby you are.” Hyunjin stuck his tongue out at the shorter boy. 

Seungmin sniffled. “D-don’t you dare. I guess, thanks for trusting me and introducing your friends to me today. I was pretty worried I wouldn’t be able to anyone real, but you definitely solved that for me. Oh! If you don’t mind me asking, who’s Changbin? I heard you saying bye to him when you walked in, and your mom mentioned something about you helping some boys out a lot?”

Hyunjin’s ears started turning red, he shyly replied, “o-oh, he’s my uh—my boyfriend.” He stared at the floor and twiddled his thumbs. Man had he really dug his grave now. 

“I thought Felix was your boyfriend?”

“Um...yes? It’s really complicated and I don’t want to overwhelm you with my messy love life so soon after you fainting.” Could Hyunjin really get out of this one so easily? It was going to be so hard to explain, and after the day he’d had, well, it certainly wouldn’t make it any better. 

“Ahh, I get it. Just tell me whenever you’re ready or whatever. I’m pretty curious now.” Seungmin giggled. So maybe Hyunjin really was as much trouble as everyone at the school was making him out to be...”Real quick subject change: I meant to ask earlier but um, how long have Minho and Jisung been together?”

“You want to know about the Minsung lovebirds all of a sudden?” Seungmin rapidly nodded his head. “Woah, chill before your head falls off. To answer your question, they’ve been on and off for about 2 years now. Even when they were technically off, they were the only person the other would talk about. Pretty sickening if you ask me, but who am I to judge?” Hyunjin shrugged his shoulders. Thank goodness Seungmin’s never failing fascination with pretty boys saved Hyunjin from having to talk about himself more. 

“Oh, so you wouldn’t say there was any chance for me if maybe, I um” Seungmin was flustered all of a sudden, but with good reason! Just thinking of Minho and his beauty was distracting. 

“If you wanted to get with him? Probably not, unless you suddenly became very alluring. Minho likes pretty things as much as you do, maybe even more, and Jisung has always been his definition of perfection.”

“But what if I decided I really wanted to go after him...would you help me figure out a way to get into Minho’s heart?”

“Minnie, you know as your platonic soulmate I would basically do anything for you. Breaking up Minsung may be crossing a line though.”

“Hyunjin! Pleaseeee,” whined Seungmin. He had to get his way this time. He always got his way one way or another, and Minho wouldn’t be any different. 

“If you can convince me you even have a chance of getting to him by the end of this week, I’ll consider helping you.”

“I knew I could count on you! Oh, I should probably be getting home, it’s pretty late.” Seungmin stood up and began opening the bedroom door. “Thank you for making sure I got home mostly safe today. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, Seungmin” replied Hyunjin with a tight-lipped smile. He could hear a mix of his own heart pounding and Seungmin’s fleeing steps as the other boy left his house and left Hyunjin to solve his latest problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy belated Valentine’s Day <3


	4. Chapter 4

Seungmin stepped out the door the next day ready to face whatever school was going to hit him with. Unfortunately, he really didn’t expect to be met with the group Hyunjin had introduced him to yesterday. He had been hoping to get some time to plan his approach towards Minho, but apparently that was going to have to wait. “So uh, why is everybody waiting for me?” Seungmin was clearly bewildered by everyone just showing up out of the blue, not even Hyunjin had texted him a warning.

“Yeah, sorry about that. We didn’t really expect to stop here, but we had waited for Hyunjin and figured we may as well wait on you since you live near him” said Felix while clinging to Hyunjin’s side. Aww, they had waited for him? Seungmin wondered whose idea that had been; with any luck, it had been Minho’s who was secretly already falling in love with Seungmin without him having to do anything. That was probably far from the truth but he could wish!

“I’m just glad the fan clubs didn’t follow you all here,” Hyunjin shook his head, “They’re always following us around, and it would’ve made Seungmin’s first real school day such a hassle.” Well apparently whatever these fanclubs were, they were quite a pain in Hyunjin’s eyes. They couldn’t possibly be individual fanclubs for these boys, right?

Seungmin didn’t have to wait long for his thoughts to be answered as Jeongin hesitantly explained, “There’s a group of students that follows each of us around sometimes claiming to be our fans. It’s just a few for each of us, but when each small group gathers together it becomes a real pain.”

“I guess you could say we’re like celebrities around here. It’s definitely ‘cause of our good looks, don’t you think?” said Jisung, while wiggling his eyebrows towards Minho. The couple was holding hands, and it took a lot out of Seungmin to not set his half-baked plan into motion right then and there. However, he thought better of it since he wasn’t feeling too devious so early in the morning, just tired and confused.. 

“It’s definitely the good looks. Isn’t Seungmin lucky he’s with us now?” chuckled Minho. Fuck, he had such an adorable laugh. Seungmin definitely had to keep in mind that Minho’s giggles could kill him in the future. It was truly a deadly addition to Minho’s already overflowing charms in Seungmin’s opinion.

“Yeah, sure,” replied Seungmin with an eye roll, “I guess we could just get going now.”

“Great idea! I totally forgot I had to get to the library early to finish up a research paper. Let’s go everyone!” Hyunjin seemed to be rushing everyone now. Odd considering how chill he normally was, but hey, when you have a project due, such anxiety is a given. Seungmin settled into a calm stride beside Jeongin. “Good morning Innie! Oh, is it okay if I call you that?”

“Morning! And of course, I like nicknames!” Jeongin’s eyes sort of glittered as he smiled along with his response. It was pretty cute if Seungmin was honest with himself. “I’m really sorry about all of us just suddenly showing up at your house.” 

“Nah, it’s fine. Would it be bad if I secretly enjoyed it a little?” 

“I’m glad you’re liking it. I remember the first day we stopped by Felix’s. Poor boy practically had a heart attack. He didn’t remember giving Jisung his address and thought we were stalking him” Jeongin laughed at the seemingly fun memory. It sounded like a pretty funny situation to be caught up in.

“Sounds rough. Not quite as rough as the end of my first day yesterday though.”

“Oh yeah! What in the world happened to you? We were all worried, and then we couldn’t check on you because none of us have your number. Hyunjin said you were fine, but it would’ve been nice to hear it from you.” Jeongin pouted. He straight up pouted and it took every ounce of self control for Seungmin to stop himself from cooing due to the younger’s adorable tendencies. 

“Sorry about that. People tend to forget to give out their number when they’re hallucinating.”

“I didn’t mean it like that! Your health is a top priority” whined Jeongin, “but we were all pretty concerned and it sucked not having a way to contact you.”

Seungmin chuckled, “I’m just giving you a hard time. I’ll give you my number right now to prevent any worrying in the future.” 

“Thanks Minnie. Wait, can I call you that?” Jeongin’s ears turned red as he seemed to realize what he had said. Honestly though, Seungmin was perfectly fine with it. That’s what Hyunjin called him too after all.

“Of course! Hyunjin calls me that too. You know, I’ll even put that as my name in your phone for you” Seungmin said as he finished exchanging numbers with Jeongin. Just as they swapped back their phones, they arrived at the school’s front gates. 

“Well, I’m off to the library” shouted Hyunjin at the group as he dragged Felix along with him towards the library building in the distance. 

“I’m off too. I have a morning dance club meeting to plan the practice schedule for the upcoming competition we’re entering” said Minho. He smooched Jisung on the cheek and walked towards the arts wing. 

“I guess that leaves Jeongin and I to give you a tour then” Jisung mused as we swung his arms over the remaining two boys’ shoulders.

“You don’t have to, the office had another student give me a tour yesterday. I think his name was Soobin?” Seungmin wasn’t one hundred percent on that name, but it sounded familiar enough.

“Nope, he probably gave you the lame tour talking about the buildings and their ‘unique architecture’ and whatever. We’ll give you the fun and interesting tour, isn’t that right Innie?”

“Only if you’re feeling up to it after everything that happened yesterday,” Jeonging seemed to be pretty shaken after yesterday, but Seungmin was feeling fit as a fiddle.

“The tour sounds great, not like I have anything better to do here so early in the morning.” They really had gotten here way too early. There was still about an hour until class was supposed to start. Better too early than late Seungmin supposed.

“Oh you’ll get used to being here early. Someone always has something before school and we like to walk together.” Jeongin had practically read Seungmin’s mind. Which was creepy, but nice.

“So no sleeping in?” pouted Seungmin.

“Nope, that’s what the weekends are for. Now, let’s get the best tour on this side of the Pacific started then!” chimed in Jisung cheerily. Too much cheer for this early in the morning if you asked Seungmin. He preferred calm, relaxing things, however Jisung was proving to be pretty much the exact opposite of that so far.

“Let’s get on with it then.” exhaled Seungmin as Jisung started dragging him and Jeongin along towards the school buildings. He could sense it was going to be a long, long morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the extremely inconsistent updating. However, I have much more time on my hands with the quarantine and all, so I hope to do lots of work for this. Thank you for reading : )


	5. Chapter 5

Seungmin had to admit: the tour really wasn’t that bad. Sure, he had been expecting something cheesy and to get dragged around all morning, but it actually ended up being pretty helpful. He learned about the secret balcony up on the fifth floor with a great view into the courtyard. Of course Jisung didn’t fail to mention that, “Not just anyone can get access here, you know? It’s a good thing you know the right people” before going on to say that he could normally find at least one of the guys up there during class when things got boring, but if he wasn’t careful he may find one of the couples… occupying… the space. They also stopped by the cafeteria just in case Seungmin lost Jisung before lunch so he could check out where they normally ate, which was smack dab in the center of the cafeteria. He was then reminded of the fact that he has suddenly become part of a group of popular kids so that was going to be fantastic. Jeongin got dragged off after this stop by a group of three guys: the one who had shown him around yesterday, one in Jeongin’s class, and another with bright blue hair. And in Seungmin’s mind, if you could pull off blue hair? Props to you *enthusiastic applause*. 

He wasn’t too upset about Jeongin being whisked away, since that gave Seungmin more of a chance to directly interrogate one half of Minsung. Seungmin finally settled on a good start, "So how did you and Minho end up together?"

"Really? You want to be bored by that story? I was hoping you would have something more interesting to say. Why are you even asking that though? What, I got it. You like Minho don't you?" Jisung started practically maniacally laughing.

Seungmin sputtered, "W-what? No. Of course not" and awkwardly laughed it off. Yeah...the funniest question ever.

"I was just messing with you Seungmin. To be honest, I'm not sure where to start on our epic love story." Jisung stared off into the distance. This actually seemed to be a question which stumped Jisung. A small miracle considering he hadn't stopped talking since his tour had started about 45 minutes ago.

"Well, we still have lots of time until class starts, and you two seem pretty attached at the hip. I guess I just wanted to know how such an adorable relationship even happened." Seungmin wanted to hurl with every word that exited his mouth. This was his mortal enemy he was speaking to right now and there was nothing adorable about Minho and Jisung's relationship. Just the opposite to be precise.

"I guess it started when I was in my first year here. I was pretty lost. I came here after attending an international school in Malaysia for awhile, so this was a pretty big change for me. There was a whole orientation thing during the break before school was set to start and my mom forced me to go. Thank goodness I went because it really set me up for all the friends I have now. When I got there I met Hyunjin. He was pretty interested in dance so we were checking out the dance club here and Minho came up to us asking if we really wanted to be there. Obviously we didn't and Minho said he would take us out for lunch instead. Odd move on his part, hanging out with a couple of newbies when he was barely going to be in his second year. but hey, I guess he knew who he wanted from the beginning." Jisung took a pause and laughed. His facial expression gave away all the fondness he felt for the memories he was recalling. Seungmin thought it was kind of cute, but no! Jisung was the enemy and he was manipulating him to give him valuable information right now.

"Anyways, the three of us became good friends after that. We also had Chan with us at the time. He's in college now, but Minho was friends with him at the time. Actually, Chan and I and another friend from a different school kind of have this hip-hop group thing going on right now, but that's a story for another time. About halfway through our first year, Felix transferred here after his move from Australia. He actually lives with Chan which was pretty convenient for him. Automatic friend group! Since we then had a bunch of people in our circle, and we were all already pretty popular in our own right, obviously people started hitting on us. Highschool relationships are pretty common, and it isn't like we weren't pretty eager ourselves. So I started dating this guy, and Minho had this huge freak out.” Jisung took a quick breath. Man could he talk a lot.

“A jealous freak out of epic proportions. It really scared me at first because he is one of the sweetest people on this Earth. I mean, you can't always tell, he has this tsundere thing going on or something most of the time, but he's a marshmallow: Adorable, fluffy, and edible. That's how I discovered he had a crush on me. He's much of the talking about feelings type unfortunately, but yeah that was a little after Felix had gotten here. So we've been together for a little over a year. And wow that was a long story. Why did you let me talk so long?” whined Jisung.

"Huh? Oh, well, it was a nice story. A real rollercoaster of emotions if you will" Seungmin had sort of zoned in and out during Jisung's story. The man was long winded that's for sure. At least he heard Minho was a tsundere, but a marshmallow when you got to know him. He also heard he was edible? But who knows what that could mean.

"I'm glad you enjoyed that. Hey, if you don't mind me asking, why did you transfer here so suddenly from your other school?" Of course it would be his mortal enemy who would ask that question first. He had nothing to hide, but it still made Seungmin just a teensy bit uncomfortable.

"Well, my mom got a job transfer, and I didn't want to stay with my dad. So here I am. I used to live in the area when I was not too much younger. We really just moved for my middle school years, but we never sold the house next to Hyunjin's. That made things a lot easier if I'm being honest. I didn't even have to pack too much."

"Okay, follow-up question: how was your social life at your old school?" Just as Seungmin had feared, Jisung was good at mind games too.

"Nowhere near as popular as you all here, but I had my own thing going on. I had a good group of friends. Even had a girlfriend for a cool second until I realized I liked guys. That was definitely a crazy time. It all worked out for the better though. I won't really miss anyone from there if I'm being honest."

"And why not?"

"They just weren't the most memorable or interesting people. When I was with them the brilliance of our friendship was blinding, but looking back on it all, it's already started to dull. Plus, I heard so many stories about all of your group's adventures from Hyunjin I was looking forward to being apart of the fun." And it was true. The whole time Seungmin had been gone from the area Hyunjin had been giving him life updates. Hyunjin's life was 1000% crazier than Seungmin's had been. Not that Seungmin's had been boring, it just wasn't at the level of fun he was trying to move towards before his youth was gone. He didn't have to be worried about lost youth for a long while, but it was better to be proactive than reactive in his mind.

"And that's the bell" Jisung said as a loud noise scared the crap out of Seungmin. Who came up with school bell sounds? They must be absolutely crazy if they thought was the right way to tell people to get moving. "We're in the same class by the way, so if you don't remember where the room is just follow me and I'll get you there safe and sound." Jisung was low-key starting to get on Seungmin's nerves. They both open up to each other, and bam! Right back to the sarcasm and smirks. It was okay though. Baby steps. Jisung wasn't going to decide in an hour that Seungmin was his new best friend, but during their talk, Seungmin had realized that may just be the perfect route to go to get to Minho. Jisung seemed pretty loyal to his friends, and blindly in love with Minho. He would never expect anyone to approach Minho, let alone one of his good friends. This was the best plan Seungmin had ever come up with. It may take the most work, but it would definitely be worth the end result.

Seungmin followed Jisung to the classroom and set his stuff down at the seat he had sat in yesterday. It was kind of in an inconvenient spot right in the teacher's line of sight, but at least he wasn't next to anyone annoying.

"Hi Seungmin. You don't know me, but would you like to switch seats with me?" Seungmin turned and faced his classmate. Seungmin had zero clue where the boy had come from, but took up his offer with a curt nod.

"You know you're not supposed to switch seats without the Class President's permission, Sanha" huffed out Soobin. Seungmin never even realized the boy had been sitting behind him. What a small world.

"Soobin, could Seungmin and I switch seats? I had to switch to my glasses from my contacts, and my eyes are having a hard time adjusting to them and I can't see very well from the back." Seungmin was incredibly confused. Sanha's glasses didn't even have lenses in them. Surely, Soobin could see that, and why was he so insistent on switching seats with Seungmin specifically? He finally looked up and saw the reason sitting in the back corner smirking at him. Of course Jisung had a hand in this.

"Sure, you two can switch seats! Thanks for asking!" Soobin was an awfully cheerful guy, he also seemed not to notice that he was a giant, but that was none of Seungmin's concern for the time being.

"How nice of you to join me!" Jisung clapped Seungmin on the back as he sat in the desk next to the boy. It seemed like Jisung was already taking a liking to him, playing right into Seungmin's plan. "I didn't actually make Sanha move, that was Hyunjin's doing. They're pretty good friends surprisingly. I hope Soobin didn't give you too much trouble?"

"Soobin?" Seungmin had to laugh. "Soobin is probably the least intimidating or forceful person I've ever met. The poor guy doesn't look like he could say no for his life."

"Well, if you were to mention you had a thing for Yeonjun anywhere near the boy you may find out he has a lot more bite in him than his bark would imply." Jisung actually looked quite concerned and nervous about that statement.

"I don't even know who that is. Plus, I already have my eyes on someone else."

"Yeonjun is literally impossible to miss unless you’re color blind. You aren’t color blind, right?” Seungmin shook his head. “In that case, he was the guy with bright blue hair earlier you idiot there’s no way you’ve never heard his name before, and aww, your crush on Innie is so obvious."

"Jeongin?! You think I have a crush on Jeongin?" Wow was Jisung oblivious. This whole stealing a boyfriend thing was going to be much easier than Seungmin had anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter is considerably longer than the previous ones, and came out in a timely fashion. I hope to keep both of those things a routine in the future lol. Thanks for reading :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I just realized that I missed my update mark for last week. Totally slipped my mind sadly, and I never finished the chapter. However, I've decided to do the first half of the chapter today, another the day after next, and then continue with one a week (hopefully). Anywho, hope you all enjoy, and any feedback is welcome, I'm still pretty new to this XD

The class time before lunch felt like it lasted centuries. In fact, it was only about 3 hours, but it felt like a lot to Seungmin who needed lunchtime to better configure his plan of attack for his crush. He had to make some progress on his own by tomorrow if he wanted any chance of enlisting Hyunjin’s help. No one could really know how much Hyunjin could help, but Seungmin figured it couldn’t hurt to have backup. Beyond Hyunjin’s help, Seungmin needed to know he could get any guy he wanted on his own. Seungmin’s smaller, less popular circle at his previous school had made romantic relationships hard to come by, but being back with Hyunjin and being welcomed into his friends’ fold had stirred up newfound confidence in Seungmin. 

Seungmin let himself be dragged towards the cafeteria by Jisung who was just eager to see his boyfriend. “Four hours is too long to be away from my bunny,” smirked Jisung with a fond look in his eyes.

“You act as if you haven’t seen him in months, not hours” Seungmin rolled his eyes. Someone was just a smidge whipped.

“Minutes do tend to turn into hours without your cuddle buddy. I remember just the other day, Yeonjun was a--”

“Soobin!” shouted blue hair boy from across the hall. Oh, so this must be Yeonjun. Jisung was right, he was very hard to miss.  
As Soobin left, another voice spoke up, "I didn’t even know he was walking with us.”

Now that scared the lights out of Seungmin. Suddenly Hyunjin, Felix, and Jeongin had appeared at Seungmin’s side! He did this odd jump-thing in surprise as the rest of the other boys just stared at him.

“You okay dude?” asked Hyunjin with a deeply concerned expression on his face.

“You all just appeared out of nowhere! How did you manage to sneak up on us like that?” 

“We’ve been walking together for a couple minutes already. You did seem pretty deep in thought, so that could be why you never noticed,” offered Felix.

“Well, let’s get going now that this scaredy-cat has calmed down. I just want to see my marshmallow,” whined Jisung. Pet names, Jisung was using them a lot, that must mean Minho liked that kind of thing. Jisung’s tour was started coming back to him as the group entered the cafeteria. It was a pretty spacious room with nice, big windows overlooking the athletic fields. It was quite a pretty site for the middle of the city. The guys stood in line for food. Seungmin was grabbing things randomly until Jeongin interrupted.

“Ew, don’t take that one. Take this instead it’s a lot easier on the taste buds,” said Jeongin as he handed him a cookie with rainbow chocolate chips in it.

“Thanks, what was I about to grab though?” Seungmin didn’t see anything wrong with the other cookie, it just looked like a snickerdoodle.

“Everything. Minho accidentally grabbed one a while back, and we spent our entire lunch trying to figure out why it was so sour. We still don’t know why, so we just avoid them.” They finished grabbing things, and Jeongin led Seungmin over to the table Jisung had shown him earlier.

And there was Minho. God damn was he fine. Why did some people get all the luck in this world?

“Hey, Seungmin! Jisung isn’t being too much of a pest for you, is he? I know sometimes he tends to go overboard, but that’s just his way of showing he cares.” Minho smiled and ruffled Jisung’s hair.

“Hey! I’ve been on my best behavior today! Seungmin and I are practically best friends now after our splendid tour this morning and our new seating situation together. Isn’t that right?” Jisung beamed as he elbowed Seungmin in the side to hurry up and answer the question.

“Oh! Yeah, definitely. Jisung is real BFF material,” replied Seungmin in a pretty monotone voice. 

Hyunjin made a choking noise as he began laughing, “When did you become such a horrible liar, Minnie?”

“I thought I made a very good impression and showed only my best sides,” pouted Jisung.

“It’s okay babe, you aren’t going to get along with everyone instantly,” replied Minho as he threw his arm around Jisung’s shoulders. Seungmin stared at the scene and contemplated his actions going forward. He could really work directly on Minho to divert his affection from Jisung, or he could wear Jisung down as well. 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer' was the famous saying after all.

“Actually, Jisung’s been pretty great. I’m just distracted by all the new things happening today.” Hyunjin looked towards Seungmin with a knowing look in his eyes. Hey, sometimes the best plans are the more predictable ones.

“He almost picked up a mystery cookie!” Jeongin shouted and shook his head in horror. Maybe Seungmin could get Jeongin on his side too. He had been helping him a lot so far without even realizing it. Decisions, decisions… 

“Aww man, you should’ve let him grab one. That would have been hilarious!”

“Thanks Jisung, I take back everything I said about you being great,” laughed Seungmin.

“You have to admit you would’ve found it funny if one of us had eaten one though,” chuckled Felix. Seungmin wondered if Felix would be willing to help him out as well. Being Hyunjin’s boyfriend and all practically made him an extension of the guy, especially in moments like this. The two were practically glued at the sides even while eating, which Seungmin found equally endearing and gag-inducing.

“Okay, it may have been funny, but I would’ve gotten you all back eventually.”

“And how would you have done that? You’re still new here, there’s no way you know all of this place’s secrets already,” Minho laughed relaxedly.

“I may not, but you don't know everything about me either,” half-joked Seungmin with a wink. Everyone burst into laughter, ending that discussion. The group continued eating their lunches and carrying on casual discussion with whoever they were sitting next for the rest of lunch until Hyunjin asked Seungmin, “What club are you planning on joining?”

“Do I have to join one?” That seemed like a ridiculous rule to Seungmin.

“Of course not, but we’re all involved with one, and I wouldn’t want you out there doing who knows what while we’re at club meetings” chuckled Hyunjin.

“I hadn’t really thought about it to be honest. At my last school I was part of the nature club, but it wasn’t really my thing. I was only there with one of my friends. I guess I want to try something new. Any suggestions?”


	7. Chapter 7

“Come on, you know it’s a great idea.” Hyunjin was having a hard time keeping up with Seungmin as the two walked to the bathroom before class started again. They were also in the middle of a heated discussion, but that was a minor detail.

“I am not joining the dance club!” Seungmin whisper-shouted in Hyunjin’s direction. “Have you ever seen me dance? No? That’s what I thought and there’s a reason for it.” Seungmin couldn’t believe Hyunjin would even offer up such a ridiculous thing, especially in front of the other boys. It seemed as if Hyunjin had another plan in mind. Which was kind of odd since he had said he wouldn’t help Seungmin until he had proven he had a chance with Minho. So why suddenly offer assistance? Did he not think Seungmin could do it himself? Hyunjin had always had faith in his actions in the past, so why didn’t he trust him to come up with his own plan. He had to admit, it would be a pretty simple move to join Minho’s club, but would that be too obvious? Plus, Seungmin wasn’t the most confident in his dancing abilities. Singing or baseball? Sure, but dancing had always been his top nemesis.

“What is your great reason to pass up this opportunity?” The boys stopped in the hallway near the bathroom to continue their conversation. Seungmin knew Hyunjin knew the reasons why this wasn’t the best idea, but maybe the boy needed a not-so-gentle reminder.

“I can’t dance Hyunjin! You’ve seen me before when we were younger. I look terrible and I can’t keep up. This club competes too, and I would only be a burden.” Seungmin looked down and kind of kicked at the air. Hyunjin had started taking dance classes when the boys were younger. At first, Seungmin joined him in the classes, but after a couple of months Seungmin believed he could never compare to Hyunjin’s skills and quit. Hyunjin had tried to support Seungmin and insisted they were on the same level, but Seungmin was a very stubborn person.

“So you not wanting to join the dance club has nothing to do with Minho being the President of the club and a choreographer for both teams?” teased Hyunjin. 

“No!” Seungmin started to blush and hit Hyunjin on the arm. “Okay, maybe a little. What would happen if I made a complete fool out of myself? My chances with him would be ruined and totally nonexistent.”

“You won’t make a complete fool out of yourself. Maybe just a little at first, but I’ll be there the whole time in case you do anything too stupid.” Hyunjin shrugged and laughed, “You have to admit, this would be a pretty convenient way to get closer to Minho.”

“Do you not trust me to come up with my own idea? I get that you two are good friends and you obviously know more about what he likes, but I thought you weren’t going to help me until I could prove this whole plan could amount to something.”

“Well, technically I’m not helping you. This is merely a suggestion. You can listen to me or not. Also, wouldn’t it be fun if we were in the same club! We travel once in awhile too. Imagine all the great pictures we could take on the trips. And if justifying your plan to me matters so much to you, I guess I won’t help you practice for the placement audition. Honestly, that’ll just be more work for you, but hey, to each their own.”

“There’s a placement audition? Why? For what?” This idea of Hyunjin’s was getting more and more complicated. How was Seungmin possibly going to have time to become Jisung’s friend, become Minho’s friend (and more hopefully), keep up with school, and be part of a dance club that apparently travels? 

“The audition is to see whether you should be a part of the recreational team or the competition team. Minho is a part of both since he’s pretty important to the club, but he spends more time with the competition team because he choreographs sometimes and they all share the same passions and such. Actually, I guess ‘they’ is ‘we’ since I’m on the competition team too. Lix is in the club too,” Hyunjin’s eyes softened, “he’s on the recreational team even though he could definitely move up to the competition team anytime he wanted. He’s always at our meetings and practices anyways, but he doesn’t want to move up for whatever reason.” Hyunjin looked a little saddened by this, but Seungmin knew not to press too much on the boyfriend subject. 

“So what you’re saying is, I have to learn a dance to get into this club, and you want me to get into a team at your level?! Hyunjin! You’ve been in dance classes since you could walk! How--”

“Actually, I didn’t start them until I was 6 and you took them with me as well, so you could argue that we’re on a comparable level.”

“I took classes for two months, you can’t possibly be serious.”

“There’s a couple people on the team that had zero experience before, but with hard work and dedication anything is possible.”

“I don’t want to work hard though, and I don’t want to take someone’s spot who really wants it,” pouted Seungmin. The bell suddenly rang out, indicating the boys should start getting to class. 

“Well, it’s something to really consider if you’re serious about your crush. Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to do something together just like old times?” Sure, Seungmin could audition, but it sounded like an awful lot of work for something he wasn’t overly enthused about. Of course, there were things in life that you didn't want to do but had to, but was this really one of those moments? It would give him a lot of opportunities to be around Minho, but was that worth all of the time and effort to get Seungmin out of his comfort zone? Pretty soon Hyunjin walked off down the hall, leaving Seungmin to sift through all of his thoughts alone.


	8. Chapter 8

“Make sure I’m hearing this correctly: you want to join the dance club, and you’re asking me about his right now because I’m the club president’s boyfriend?” 

“Exactly! Minho must tell you about the club all the time since you two are so close. I could really use some advice on how to go about entering the club and such.” 

“Wouldn’t it be easier to ask Hyunjin about this? I mean, he’s actually in the club.” Jisung looked incredibly confused. To be fair, so was Seungmin but what was new about that?

“Hyunjin isn’t the president’s boyfriend though. You must have some insider tips to guarantee my success!” Seungmin had begun asking Jisung about the dance club as soon as he had entered the classroom after lunch. Hyunjin may have made some accurate points and it was time for Seungmin to get down to business. 

“This is true, but can’t we talk about this later? Like, not in the middle of class with the risk of the teacher yelling at us?” 

“Oh, yeah. Just wanted to get the ball rolling so I can start preparing as soon as possible,” shrugged Seungmin. Geez, some people and actually wanting to pay attention in class. He looked around at the classroom and his surrounding classmates. The room itself was kind of drab now that he took a good look at it. There was a whiteboard on top of the beige painted walls. At least the door and window casings were green, which added a much needed pop of color. The real focal point of the room ended up being the bulletin board at the back as it was filled with a bunch of colorful posters advertising various school-friendly activities. 

Seungmin zeroed in on a purple poster coincidentally advertising the dance club. Whoever designed it was, um, not that talented, but at least it offered good information. It had most likely been up since the beginning of the year, but hopefully the audition information would still apply to a newcomer later in the year like him. Apparently, all he would need was a 45 to 60 second routine of any style. It could come from any source: an existing choreography online, freestyle, a choreography of your own creation. Which would impress Minho the most? What could Seungmin even pull off? Maybe Hyunjin had made something recently? And if not, YouTube was a very resourceful place for these sorts of things, right?

“Hey, we’re working on a group project, and I’m assuming you want to be in our group?” Jisung asked, waving his hand in front of Seungmin. 

“Yeah, sure.. Wait, what project?” 

“The teacher just assigned it. We’re supposed to design our own government system for this society we’re creating because we crashed on an island or something wack. Soobin and Sanha were already planning on working with me, and we need one more person. You seem like a reliable option, no?”

“Yup, that’s me! Ol’ reliable?” chuckled Seungmin, “That really didn’t make much sense, but the point is I’m in for whatever insanity we’re about to get into.” Being paired with the class president would no doubt have its benefits, and Jisung and Sanha didn’t seem like slouches themselves, which just left Seungmin to step up to everyone else’s expectations. 

“I think the first thing we should determine is what kind of island we landed on,” suggested Soobin. 

And this planning went on for about another hour until the end of the school day. 

—————————————————————————

“So we’ll pick this back up tomorrow, and probably have to meet up after classes sometime this week as well” offered Soobin. Great, just one more thing Seungmin would have to juggle. At the very least, this would give him an excuse to better befriend Jisung. 

“Sounds good. We have to go meet up with everyone else, but have a good day guys,” waved Jisung as he dragged Seungmin down the hallway. Now that Seungmin really looked, the hallways were pretty boring too. Why was the most interesting room in this place in the cafeteria?? “Seungmin, are you even paying attention to where we’re going?” inquired Jisung.

“What? Oh, definitely not, but I’m assuming you’re not leading me to my demise or anything so it’s all good.” Jisung was definitely flustered by that comment.

“Now how could you possibly know that? You really don’t know me yet, but honestly, I’m flattered you think so highly of me already. We’re actually heading to that classroom Minho brought you to the other day after your detention mishap. We normally meet up there after school and decide where to go from there. You could think of it as our on-campus hangout,” informed Jisung. The two boys kept on walking down the labyrinthine hallways. Seungmin had no idea how he would ever find his way to this classroom on his own. It was a good thing he was in the same class as Jisung, otherwise he would have to call someone to rescue him from the sea of the hall everyday after school. Finally, Jisung stopped and pulled open a door marked: RM 325.

Looking around as they walked in, the other boys were there as well. A surprising amount of action was taking place before Seungmin’s eyes. In front of the door, Felix was tossing popcorn towards Hyunjin who was running around attempting to catch them in his mouth. To Felix’s left, Jeongin appeared to be playing a game of sorts on his phone, and in the corner of the room was Minho with his airpods in, eyes closed, looking very focused. From all the flailing arms, Seungmin could only assume he was choreographing, but as soon as Minho saw Jisung appear he turned to greet him. 

And then further chaos ensued. 

When Minho moved towards the door, he missed Hyunjin moving to catch some popcorn ending in a collision of the two. They fell to the floor laughing at least, but then Felix went to laugh at the scene causing him to choke on a kernel. Hyunjin rushed to stand up and somehow managed to hit his head on a chair. Seungmin and Jisung just took one look at each other during this utter chaos and burst into raucous laughter. The rest of this day was definitely off to a hilarious start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sooooo sorry this took so long. I just felt very unmotivated with the current state of the world. Inspiration really hit me these past couple of days though, so here's a new chapter. Hope you enjoyed and have a good day/night!

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of setting the foundation. There isn't too much plot laid out there yet, but if I ever get around to writing another chapter it will definitely jump into something more!


End file.
